It’s the day after Zelentriya joined us. Since we were tired from our quest yesterday, we decided to just call it a day after adding Zelentriya to our party. I explained to her that everyone is obligated to take a rest at least one day after a subjugation quest.

Zelentriya is staying at an inn in Central Town near the adventurer’s guild. It’s a luxurious inn that has mostly nobles, rich merchants, and high-ranking adventurers as its guests. From time to time, someone from the three highest ranks would stay on that inn. Although she’s staying on such a nice inn, she still complains, “It’s too expensive!” she said.

That reminds me. A Serpent rank adventurer went here before, right? In the end, I never heard what he was here for, even from other adventurers.

Right now, we’re eating at a restaurant along with Zelentriya… I know I was the one who suggested this as a welcoming gift for her but…

She’s eating a lot!!

Where does she store all those foods in her little body? Those plates and bowls are already piling up. Although Aelee isn’t eating as much as Zelentriya, she’s still piling up some plates. I kinda feel bad for those who’ll wash those dishes later. But they also earn from this so I guess there’s no problem.

After stuffing herself, Zelentriya spoke, “Oh, that’s right, summoner boy.”

Just when is she going to call me normally?

“What is it?”

“Have you tried summoning yet?”

“Not really, why?”

“Hmm. Then, do you want to try summoning one?”

“What did you say?”

“I mean… you don’t have any summon yet right?

“That’s true but… What if I summoned a monster?”

“You worry too much. You haven’t even tried it once, have you?”

“Well, yeah…”

“That settles it. We will go after I finish these deserts.”

“You’re still gonna eat!?”

*****

We’re now outside, far from the town. We chose a wide place where there are no people nor settlement nearby.

Aelee and Zelentriya are watching a bit further behind.

“Listen up well. That small magic circle written on that paper is a spell to summon a greed slime. Greed slimes live in the lower part of the demon realm. They’re intelligent and they are far from hostile. If you have the required mana to summon a greed slime, one should appear. Don’t worry, I already cast a ‘Double Body Barrier’ to you. That should protect you from any physical and magic attacks.”

I’m a bit nervous but…

“I got it!”

“Good luck, Greo!” Aelee cheered.

“Well, then. Go ahead and form the magic circle formula on your mind, don’t forget to direct all your mana except one percent on that magic circle or else you won’t get any result.”

Oh, it’s the same thing as my father thought me.

“Alright. Here I go!” I closed my eyes and formulated the magic circle to summon the greed slime.

The first step on summoning is by emptying your mind. Rid of anything unnecessary to summoning and carefully formulate the magic circle in your head. If you think of anything else, you will have to start everything from the very beginning. The magic circle will disappear and the mana you poured won’t return.

After I successfully drew the magic circle, I poured my mana into it, “Ugh…! Having ninety-nine percent of your mana being used up all at once is pretty tiring.”

In front of me, the very same magic circle appeared. I guess it’s success.

It blinked once and the ground shook.

“Zelentriya… Is the ground supposed to shake?”

“Definitely not. You should get out of there.”

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The worried Aelee cast a buff spell—“Speed Boost!”— to me, which helped me get away from the magic circle much faster. I quickly ran towards their direction.

“Thanks, Aelee.”

“Oh? Four slimes appeared. Just your normal slime monster though.” Zelentriya said, disappointed.

Normal, she said. Those slimes are huge though?

“You should rest here for now. You must be tired from using almost all of your mana. Zel and I will take care of those slimes.”

“Sorry and thanks.”

“This is also great timing; I will show you my power. Light girl, you take care of the other two at the right.”

“Sure. Greo, make sure to just rest, alright?” Aelee reminded.

“G-Got it.”

Zelentriya started attacking the two slimes at left with a simple small fireball, provoking them. Meanwhile, Aelee already bounded the other two with her binding spell. She’s currently, calmly, dragging them away from where Zelentriya is. It looks ridiculous. The slimes are struggling.

Wait! That slime...!

“Aelee! That slime is going to use magic!”

“Oh? We can’t have that.” Pointing a finger at the slime, she cast—“Light Ray!”—a ray of light that pierced one of the two cores of the slime. The magic it was about to fire off disappeared. To make sure that the other slime wouldn’t use any magic, she did the same thing to it. “It should be fine now.”

“Right…”

“Let’s watch Zel first, Greo.”

She’s taking it easy, huh…

At Zelentriya’s direction, the slimes are firing their magic at her. She’s evading and countering them with ease. If a slime use fire magic, she’ll use water magic. If the slimes use their tentacles as a whip, she’ll dodge or use a barrier to deflect their attacks. The speed of those tentacles are no joke, I can barely keep up with their movement and she’s there looking bored.

“Let me show you something good, summoner boy. A tier five magic.” Zelentriya raised her hand— “Dark Magic: Shadow Spear.”— and several spear-like shadows appeared in the air. With her word, “Fire!” the spear-like shadows penetrated the slimes at an astonishing speed. Apart from their round bodies being full of holes, their cores were both destroyed. The slimes’ bodies slowly disappeared, leaving two magic stones behind.

I couldn’t say anything but, “Whoa…” As expected of a level forty-five adventurer.

“How’s that, summoner boy?” She asked with a smug on her face.

“Yeah. It was amazing. You’re really powerful, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am!” Zelentriya proudly puffed her chest.

“Well, then. I will show off to Greo too.” Aelee declared as she let go of the bounded slimes.

The slimes quickly ran towards Aelee with their bladed-whip tentacles. With a short chant—“Holy Blade.”—Aelee made a sword made from light magic and promptly parried their attacks. A clashing of sharp weapons echoes through the surroundings; you can even see sparks every time their weapons meet.

The parrying of attacks continued until one of the slimes tried to attack her behind. She quickly blocked its attack and countered with a spell—“Light Javelin!”—that pierced the slime’s core. “That’s one.” The slime’s body disappeared and dropped its magic stone.

Turning her attention to the last slime, she quickly dashed towards the monster while swiftly evading and deflecting its attacks as she slowly gets closer to it.

When she got close enough, she tried thrusting her sword towards the slime’s core but it quickly stepped back and avoid her attack.

As if it was her plan from the start, she smirked and raised her left hand and—“Shine! ‘Sun’s Judgement!””—a blinding light that came from above the clouds instantly evaporated the slime, leaving a magic stone and scorched ground.

So hot! What’s with this heat?

“Oh~ She’s going all out.” Zelentriya looking amuse.

“I did it! How was it, Greo?” She asked with an expectant gaze.

“Y-Yeah. I don’t know what to say other than you’re amazing. Especially that last magic. What was that?”

“Oh, that. It’s a tier eight light magic. It takes a long time to prepare and takes at least half of my mana so I can just use it once a day.”

Tier eight… That’s two tiers away from the strongest magic tier.

“Still… Both of you are really powerful. I guess I’ll need to get stronger fast.”

“That’s right.” Zelentriya nodded. “Your father is also expecting a lot from you. That being said, you don’t need to rush but, you can’t slack off neither. Just slowly build up yourself. You will be fine.”

“She’s right, Greo. We’ll help you whenever you need it.”

Such reliable allies. I’m glad they’re my party members.

“That reminds me, Zelentriya.”

“What is it?”

“I’m pretty confident that I didn’t make any mistake on my summoning earlier. So why did it turn out like that?”

“What? You did not know?”

“About what?”

“You know about the appearance of terrestrialization virus, right?”

“Yeah?”

“The effect of that virus was huge. Other than monsters, it also affected the mana channels of summoning magic. Both the human realm and demon realm were affected. I have no idea about the Gods’ realm though.”

“…Mana channels…?”

“Oh what? You don’t know that either? Just what did ****** teach you…?” She sighed. “Anyway, think of it as teleportation magic. Let’s say you made a formula to summon a greed slime. Normally, the way summoning works is that it teleports a random greed slime, those who are ‘okay’ on being someone’s familiar, through a mana channel from wherever they are to your summoning position. If you have enough mana, you will be able to successfully summon them. After successfully summoning one, it will be your familiar instantly.”

“I see. So those who are ‘okay’ to be summoned are those intelligent monsters who gave their consent?” I asked.

“That’s right. But because of the terrestrialization virus, the mana channel is in disarray. It disrupts the process most of the time, if not always, bringing back the supposed greed slime to where it was originally and instead, it sends monsters depending on the amount of mana on the magic circle. Seeing how you summoned four slime monsters, your mana right now is probably enough for the greed slime.”

So that’s how it actually was. Did he not mention it deliberately or he just forgot? I don’t get him sometimes.

*****

In a certain forest in a certain kingdom.

Two girls are running away from the armed men chasing them.

“Frozen Steps!” A girl with a long black hair shouted.

The ground froze. Most of the armed men that were caught have their feet bounded with ice, making them unable to advance. Some attempted to break it to no avail.

“This ice is too hard!” One of the men grumbled.

The girls continue running until they reached a cliff.

“Give it up! You have no escape now. You lot, get them. Hurt them or whatever, but don’t kill them!”

“Oh-Hohohoho!” A girl with blond twin-drill hair’s laugh echoes as both of their figures slowly disappear in front of their eyes.

The armed men were surprised.

“All of you! Search the area! Hurry!” Commanded the man wearing golden armor.

“Klare…! Don’t you dare think you would get away with this!” The man wearing a classy outfit said, gritting his teeth out of intense anger.